I am not sure if N Gauge is really picking up but I hear all the time that folks exchange the 00 Gauge for N Gauge all the time, I buy Railway Modeler every month and this month it has got to me that they do not like over catering for N Gauge enthusiasts, all that is in this months Railway Modeler is the Wenbridge to Tapley line which is a very fine model but the rest of the mag is devoted to bigger gauge models, come on guys at Railway Modeler or any one else give us something to read we can get our teeth into, I am really considering into stopping buying these model rail mags, I want N Gauge stuff to read now..

Thank heavens for this forum.

Sorry for my rant but it winds me up.

Well the NGS magazine is every other, so I guess it depends how often Mr Hedges releases his magazines in between

Hi Geoff - yes, it would be great but the 'main' mags try to cater for all and, in the case of  , fail quite badly. Could this be because not a lot of N gaugers send articles to them for publication
I know we get our bi-monthly fix from the NGS (which is far better than the monthlies) but if only it were monthly itself

N'spirations is gathering speed, although not monthly still a good read,,,, between that and the ngs journal I get my fix,,,,

I'd also like to see more N gauge in mainstream magazines.

I always look forward to my N Gauge Journal and I was considering joing the 2mm scale association for the scratch/kit building side to help improve my modelling skills - so that would be an extra fix of pseudo N gauge stuff.

But we do have to remember that; (please don't take offense), most of the people that buy Railway modeller etc are 50+ years old with failing eyesight and increasing attention to detail, which is easier to achieve in the larger scales.

I hope N gauge continues to grow for years to come! 

From what I know, one of the main mags does like to ensure there is at least one major article in each edition in each of 2mm/4mm/7mm scale and something 'Steam Era' and something 'Diesel Era'. Beyond that, quality rules over any strict division between scales and I support that policy. I'd much rather read an interesting well written article on any scale/prototype/era etc than another identical "I nailed sum PECO track down and got my trains stright out the farish boxes" article. If there is any skewing of the content (and everyone believes the mags are biassed against their particular interests don't they ) is it far more due to the standards of contributions recieved than any deliberate editorial policy.

If you want to see more N-Gauge content get on and write it, but find a new angle, add a new perspective, dont just mimic evey other layout article you see...

Paul

While I agree it would be nice to have a dedicated monthly N Gauge magazine, many of the 'How To' type of articles are easily adapted to suit any gauge. Added to that the 00 layouts can easily be scaled down to N Gauge. Just because a layout is built to 00 gauge does not mean it should be dismissed as irrelevant to N, or any other gauge. I would imagine that 0 and G gauge modellers feel just as marginalised as we do.

The one thing that does irritate me, however, is that when competitions are held the prizes are always 00 gauge/scale with no option to exchange them for comparable items in other scales.

Just to add that RM and other mags receive complaints like this all the time, and they always reply that they can't feature N layouts if people don't submit them for publication! The following for 00 still far outweighs us N-gaugers so it will always be prominent, and the 0-gaugers probably complain just as much as their scale is rarely featured as well 

As the previous Paul said, we need more quality N gauge layouts to be submitted for possible features 


Paul

Quote from: Zaonite on February 23, 2012, 03:26:48 PM


But we do have to remember that; (please don't take offense), most of the people that buy Railway modeller etc are 50+ years old with failing eyesight and increasing attention to detail, which is easier to achieve in the larger scales.

I hope N gauge continues to grow for years to come! 

None taken

You can get an exclusively N gauge fix on a daily basis from forums like this.
You can get a bi-monthly all N gauge fix from the NGS 'journal'.
You can get some more exclusive N gauge content in 'N'spirations'.
And you can find a bit of N gauge in all issues of all the major monthly commercials like Railway Modeller, Model Rail, BRM, Rail Express modeller and even the Hornby magazine. Not a bad choice and coverage overall.

I actually find it quite nice to also see what is going on in other scales. Usually they have something you can learn from and as already mentioned by PLD, Chinahand and Red Death it does offer an extra quality aspect to railway modelling.

H.

All very interesting comments and the publications mentioned are no doubt quality publishings but one aspect of n gauge that has not been mentioned here is those of us who prefer US rolling stcok.

The last magazines I bought were N'spirations a which is great buy if you are into British stuff, I ended up selling the copies I had bought to another member here as, apart from layout ideas, there was nothing US in it.  I have not bought any of the mainstream magazines for over a year because of this.

In the recent weeks there have been a few members here who have posted their intentions to sell off their British stock, mainly because of quality and running issues, and are moving to US stock because they bought a Kato loco and were floored by its quality and performance.

I signed up for the Model Railroad Hobbyist online magazine and apart from being free and not having a great deal of n gauge/ scale in it, there is at least more relevant information in it.

So if a publication was to appear on a monthly basis, if there were no American content in it - guess who would not be interested?  ... and there are no prizes for anyone correctly guessing 

cheers John.

To be fair to them; 'Railway Modeller' does have it's sister mag 'Continental Modeller' covering the European and US prototypes (generally 50:50 ish) and as for 'British Railway Modelling' - the clue is in the title!

Quote from: scotsoft on February 23, 2012, 05:43:06 PM
All very interesting comments and the publications mentioned are no doubt quality publishings but one aspect of n gauge that has not been mentioned here is those of us who prefer US rolling stcok.

There are, of course, the Americans mags, like Model Railroader, that are available here and have quite a bit of N and absolutely no British (or other overseas), and, as mentioned, Continental Modeller that features some American and N. Plus the NGS worldwide Area Group produce a newsletter exclusively about N gauge and featuring lots of foreign railways.

But that's the problem; as one specialises you restrict your interest range and therefore tend to marginalise yourself and limit what is available to you. It's a bit like those who are only interested in only the steamy (or D&E era), or a particular region, perhaps for just a few years, and with only stock designed by CME so-and-so. It gets difficult to sustain such narrow spheres of interest in magazines.

H.

Quote from: PLD on February 23, 2012, 05:51:31 PM
To be fair to them; 'Railway Modeller' does have it's sister mag 'Continental Modeller' covering the European and US prototypes (generally 50:50 ish) and as for 'British Railway Modelling' - the clue is in the title!

I am not aware I singled out "British" Railway Modelling 

cheers John.

i'm bored of model train magazines now to be honest...

i prefer to read magazines on the real things (i like traction and rail express). i just flick through the model ones in the shops, i flick through continental and us magazines as well if they have them on the shelf.

for advice / questions / reviews etc etc i use this forum now instead, so in a way the internet has removed some of the need for the magazines.


tim